U.S.-Austria and Germany Cooperative Research on Electrical Transport in Magnetic Multilayers

该奖项支持纽约大学的Peter Levy教授及其研究小组的初级成员与奥地利维也纳技术大学电化学研究所的Peter Weinberger教授及其研究小组在固态物理研究方面进行合作。 合作的第三位成员是I教授。德国德累斯顿工业大学的Mertig。. 通过合作，他们希望开发模型并进行计算，为控制过渡金属磁性多层膜磁输运特性的因素提供新的见解。 虽然这三个团体都是理论性的，但他们的努力是相辅相成的。 美国小组专注于分析和模型计算，而奥地利小组的专业知识在于固体的电子结构，磁性和输运性质的从头计算。 德累斯顿的Mertig教授在多重散射理论应用于铁磁金属中杂质散射的计算方面具有相当的专业知识。 磁性多层膜的“巨磁电阻”是有趣的，因为它既是解释其起源所需的基本物理学，也是它对新兴计算机技术的适用性。 虽然人们一致认为这种效应来自磁场改变传导电子的自旋相关散射，但关于如何实现这一点以及哪些是多层不同层次的主导因素，还有许多未解决的问题。 这种三边合作将解决其中的一些问题，并有助于对这一现象有一些新的理解，这是在试图操纵和利用这一现象之前所需要的。

This award supports Professor Peter Levy and junior members of his research group at New York University to collaborate in solid state physics research with Professor Peter Weinberger and his research group of the Institute of Electrochemistry of the Technical University of Vienna, Austria. A third member of the collaboration is Professor I. Mertig of the Technical University of Dresden, Germany. . Through collaboration, they expect to develop models and perform calculations that will provide new insights into the factors that control the magnetotransport properties of transition-metal magnetic multilayers. While all three groups are theoretical in their orientation, their efforts are complementary. The US group is focused on analytical and model calculations while the expertise of the Austrian group lies in the ab-initio calculation of electronic structure, magnetic and transport properties of solids. Professor Mertig of Dresden has considerable expertise in the application of multiple scattering theory to the calculation of impurity scattering in ferromagnetic metals. The `giant magnetoresistance` of magnetic multilayers is interesting both for the fundamental physics needed to explain its origins and for its applicability to emerging computer technologies. While there is consensus that this effect comes from the magnetic field changing the spin-dependent scattering of the conduction electrons, the there are many unresolved questions about how this is achieved and which are the dominant factors at different levels of the multiple layers. This trilateral collaboration will address some of those questions, and contribute some of the new understanding of this phenomenon needed before any attempt can be made to manipulate and use it.